Why is general chat still a thing?

General Discussion
1

Every time I look at Overwatch’s general chat (the one you can see while you’re in menus, it’s white by default) I either see random posts (“delete Brig”-spam, “F*** SMURFS,” random combinations of letters that looks like people simply hammered on their keyboards) or an allotment of homophobic, racist, antisemitic, or otherwise bigoted tirades. I’ve gotten used to leaving it as soon as something pops up, but it’s worth mentioning that doing so requires slightly advanced knowledge of how chat commands work which I’d guess the average OW player doesn’t have. There is no way to opt out of it permanently, and frankly, considering its contents, this room should not exist at all.

I don’t know why general chat was a thing in first place, but I guess I can see how Blizzard may have wanted it as a pre-LFG way to find people to play with, or for casual conversation while people are queuing. I’d say if that was the intent, it’s execution was… questionable from the start, but that’s not what i want to discuss.
What I’m wondering is, looking at the quality of interactions I’ve seen in general chat considering that LFG is a thing now, why is it still around?

2

Try browsing in StarCraft II general chat sometime.

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3

Whereabouts do you live?

OZ/NZ always just have fun times in General.

Never any hate, just chill, fun times, good laughs.

4

I normally type dumb stuff in for the heck of it.

My best work is “This is the game where I can play as Androxus, right?”

Or typing Hotel? and waiting for the response.

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5

I usually just type hit or miss and then people respond finishing the ‘song’

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6

Honestly, general chat is the most toxic chat in Overwatch from what I’ve seen.

Not to mention pretty useless in the Americas region for finding games, since it includes both south america and north america.

2 Likes
7

Also, one time I had a hour long Q&A session helping players solve certain issues in the general lobby chat. It was quite fun.

8

Because in theory general chat was supposed to be differend, but people making this game cant change players :confused:

9

You see anything at all?

10

The other day, I saw someone post about wanting to die to Mercy via suffocation from a particular body part that shall not be mentioned. Then for her to rez them.

That person seemed pretty bold to me lol.

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12

My general chats are usually hilarious and innocent. I enjoy reading the pointless spam people put while waiting for games

Most of them are just

“OWO WHO DIS” and people replying back with the “OWO” faces and varients of it, along with other memes

Im kinda glad Ive never seen your general chats

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13

Classic scrim time EU general chat.

14

Same reason it exists in Diablo 3; It’s a honeypot. If you can’t prevent scam/spam bots might as well bait them where no one cares.

15

An option to turn it off would be nice but I like myself very much.

Between Qs I love spamming random BS with folk. We share jokes, someone told me a hole in his legs or something, a good time was had by all.

16

Where else are the kids going to shout racial and sexual slurs?

18

You cant control what other people do, and removing general chat because some idiots act like idiots is well, idiotic.

When you see the comments report them, and find comfort in that they are probably miserable creatures acting out frustrations with life on a random internet chat room and no one really cares about what they have to say.

And then move on with life because if you dont, you will get lost in the weeds because life is full of people like that.

20

I’m doing that already, but the problem with that is that it puts the burden of dealing with it on me and the other players. If you remove the chat or at least let players toggle it off, you either remove the platform for this kind of behaviour to exist within the game, or you give those who are bothered by it a way of not having to deal with it.

21

I’m sirry you went through that, Osho. I’m glad the general chat could help. Hope you’re doiing better now.

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22

I only see 3 types of messages on the general chat.

People meming around, usually not funny or creative at all.

Talking about a new event/change/map/hero.

People not realising the match has ended, so they type “gg”, “report our hanzo” or stuff like that, this is definitely the most common (doesn’t mean it happens often).

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23

General chat is pretty funny sometimes. I’ve seen people have discussions about pancakes and what good food is.

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